US1131212A - Press. - Google Patents

Description

L. O. GONDUITT.

PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 11,1914.

Patented Mar. 9, 1915.

THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. PHGTOLITHOH WASHINGTON, D C.

LESTER 0. GONDUITT, OF EAST ST. LOUIS, ILLINOIS.

PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ltllar. 9, 1815..

Application filed May 11, 1914. Serial No. 837,637.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, LESTER O. CONDUITT, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of East St. Louis, county of St. Clair, State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Presses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in presses which are particularly adapted to compress cigars, after their manufacture, into compact bundles or groups preparatory to packing said bundles or groups of cigars in boxes or other receptacles, and has for its object to provide a cheap and convenient press of the character described which is simple in construction and easy of effective operation.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, in which like numbers of reference denote like parts wherever they occur, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a press embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line 22, Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the press, showing members in the compression department for compressing the cigars into a circular bundle;

The press embodying the present invention consists of a frame which is preferably of box-like construction made of any suitable material, such, for instance, as wood, said frame having a bottom 1, a back 2, and two ends 3 and 4, the front and top of the frame being left open for the purpose here inafter described. A movable partition 5, which is slidable backward and forward between the ends 3 and 4 of the frame, is preferably of shape and size similar to said ends and positioned substantially parallel thereto said movable partition 5 forming with the end 3 of said frame an adjustable compression compartment 6 and, also, providing a surface for distributing pressure against a bundle or group of cigars 7 placed in said compression compartment for compressing said bundle or group of cigars. A member 8 is secured to one face of the movable partition by any suitable means and is arranged to extend through an opening 9 in the end 4 of the frame, being adapted to slide longitudinally through said opening and being of sufficient length to extend beyond the outer face of the end 4 of the frame in order to afford a means for moving the partition 5 toward or away from the end 3 of the frame to decrease or increase the length of the compartment 6. In order to guide the movement of the partition 5, a screw, bolt, or stud 10 or the like is preferably secured to the bottom of the member 8 adjacent to the partition 5 and is arranged to extend through a longitudinal slot 11 in the bottom 1 of the frame, there being a channel or rabbet 12 in each lower edge of said slot for the reception of a washer 13, which fits on the screw 9 and is held in the channels or rabbets 11 by the head of said screw as depicted in Fig. 2. By this arrangement, the washer 13 affords a means for holding the partition 5 upon the bottom 1 of the frame, while at the same time permitting said partition to be moved along the bottom 1, the head of the screw 10 being adapted to move free from contact with the surface of a table, or the like (not shown), upon which the frame may be placed upon its bottom for conven- 1ence in operation.

For the purpose of holding the movable partition in any adjusted position relative to the end 3 of the frame, a spring-controlled device 14 is provided, same being secured to the end 4 of the frame by screws 15 or other suitable means. The spring-controlled device is preferably of ordinary latch-bolt construction, as shown in the drawings, its bolt 16 having a wedge-shaped nose 17, which is adapted to cooperate with the teeth 18 of a rack-bar 19, which is preferably secured to the top of the member 8 by screws 20 or other suitable means, each tooth being preferably V-shaped with the side facing the movable partition 5 being inclined and the opposite side being substantially vertical. By this arrangement, the teeth of the rackbar 19 allow the nose 17 of the bolt 16 to ride freely over same, when the member 8 is moved inwardly to move the movable partition 5 closer to the end 3 of the frame, but the vertical faces of said teeth interlock with the nose of said bolt and not only prevent outward movement of the member 8 but, also, hold the movable partition in its adjusted positions relative to the end 3 of the frame.

A handle 21 of any suitable construction may be secured to or made part of the bolt 16 to afford a convenient means wherewith to lift the nose 17 of said bolt out of interlocking engagement with the teeth 18 of the rack-bar 19, thereby permitting the member 8 to be moved outwardly to move the partition 5 away from theend'3 of the frame to increase the length of the compression compartment 6. A linear measuring scale is preferably graduated upon the upper edge of the back 2 of the frame for convenience when adjusting the movable partition 5 to such position as will compress the cigars inthe compres: sion compartment into a bundle or groupof such compactness as may be required to fit into a box or other receptacle (not shown) of known size. For instance, if a number of cigars being compressed within the adjustable compression compartment are being prepared for packing into a box seven inches long, the member 8 is moved inwardly to advance the movable partition 5 toward the end. of the frame and, also, to cause the partition 5 to compress the cigars laterally within the compartment 6 until said partition reaches a point where the face thereof adjacent to the cigars registers in the same vertical plane with the seven-inch mark of the scale.

.In operation, a ribbon, tape, string 22 or the like is placed in approximately the middle of the compression compartment 6 so thatit will lie upon the bottomof the latter and the loose ends of same will extend upwardly adjacent to the movable partition 5 and the end 3, respectively, as shownin Fig. 1. The desired number ofjcigars 7 is then placed upon the ribbon,- tape, or string 22 within the compartment 6 in such manner as to make either one row or a plurality of rows, depending upon the number of cigars to be packed and the size of the boX or receptacle into which same are to be packed, the cigars being so placed in the positions relative to each other that theyare to occupy when packed in the box or otherreceptacle that an end of each cigar abuts the back 2, whereby the ends of all the cigars that abut the latter register insubstantially the same plane. The press with the desired number of cigars in its compression compartment is now placed upon the platform orbase of a vertical press (not shown), which is ordinarily used in the operation of packing cigars, so that the "compression compartment is directly below the ram of the vertical press and aboard or plate 23 or the like is placed on top of the upper cigars within the compression compartment 6, after which the ram of the vertical press is lowered sufliciently to engage the board or plate 23 so as to prevent thecigars fromrising while same are being compressed laterally between the end 3 of the frame and the movable partition 5, it being, of course, understood that said board or plate is slightly shorter than the length of the space into which the cigars are to be compressed. The member 8 is theii moved inwardlyto dvance, the partition 5 toward the end 3' of the frame s'u'flicintly to compress the cigars laterally into a space corresponding in length to that of the inside length of the box or receptacle, which is to receive the cigars, pressure being applied to the board or plate 23 by means of 1 the ram of the vertical press, in order to compress thecigars sufiiciently to reduce the height of the bundle of cigars until same corresponds to' the inside depth of the box or receptacle. After the cigars have been compressedby lateral and vertical pressures applied thereto to form a compact bundle of proper dimensions, as just described, the pressure of the rain of the vertical press is released, and the board or plate 23 is removed to allow the ribbon, tape, or string 22 to be tiedaround the compressed bundle, whereupon the bolt 16 is released from interlocking engagementwith the rack-bar 19 to allow the partition 5 to be moved toward the end 4 of the frame so as to release the compressed bundle of cigars, and then the bundle is placed in a box or receptacle. The ribbon, tape, or string may be left around the bundle of cigars after the latter has been placed in a box or receptacle, or, if desired, the ribbon, tape, or string may be untied or cut and removed from the box or receptacle.

From the foregoing, it will be evident that a bundle of cigars compressed in the manner described will have the proper shape to fit in a cigar box or receptacle of rectangular form, but it should be understood that in case it is desired to compress a number of cigars into a bundle having a shape to fit in a cigar box or receptacle having a form other than rectangular, blocks of proper size and having such faces as will compress the cigars into a bundle having the desired shape may be used in the compression compartment to accomplish this result. For example, if it is desired to compress a number of cigars into a cylindrical bundle to fit in a cylindrical box or receptacle, a pair of blocks 24," each having approximately a quadrocylindrical concave face 25, may be placed in theflbottom of the compression co1npartment 6, one block 24: being adjacent to the end 3 of the frame and the other block 24: being adjacent to the movable partition 5 so that the concave faces 25 of said blocks will register with each other to form the walls of the lower half of a cylindrical compression compartment, a block 26 having approximately a semi-cylindrical concave face 27 being provided to form the upper half of the cylindrical compression compartment in which the cigars can be compressed, after same has been filled with the desired number of cigars, by means of pressure from the partition 5 to move the block 2 1 adjacent thereto toward the other block 24: and pres block 24 and the concave face 27 of the block 26 into arcual alinement, as shown in Fig. 3, thereby compressing the cigars into a cylindrical bundle. When forming a cylindrical bundle of cigars, a ribbon, tape, or string 22 may be used in the cylindrical compression compartment formed by the concave faces of the blocks 24 and 26. Obviously, blocks having faces of other desired shapes may be used to compress the cigars into bundles having any other desired shapes.

Among the advantages of preparing cigars for packing by the press of this invention is the advantage that the adjustable compression compartment 6 may be used as a convenient adjustable assembling rack for stacking a number of cigars in a group in the position, in one or more layers or otherwise, that the cigars will occupy when inclosed in the box or other receptacle wherein they are ultimately to be placed, and, more over, by means of the movable partition the lateral pressure upon a bundle of cigars in the compression compartment may be applied gradually, simultaneously or alternately with the application of vertical pressure by means of the press ordinarily used in packing cigars. Furthermore, cigars compressed into a compact bundle of any desired shape by means of the press of this invention and girded with the ribbon, tape, string, or the like, as hereinabove described, may be freely handled, and each bundle may be packed single merely by wrapping it in a paper package or the like or two or more of such bundles may be packed together in a paper package or the like instead of in the Unmet 01 this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the tin or wooden box container customarily employed, thus providing a convenient package at a comparatively small cost.

Various changes in the details of construction and in the arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention.

I claim:

1. A cigar press comprising a stationary base, end pieces and a back member, the back member having a linear measuring scale graduated thereon, a guide in one of said end pieces, a partition slidably mounted on said base between the end pieces, a rack push bar secured at one end to the movable partition, and a pawl secured to one of the said end pieces above the guide cooperating with said rack bar to hold the said partition in an adjusted position.

2. A cigar press comprising a stationary base, end pieces and a back member, a guide in one of said end pieces, a partition mounted on said base between said end pieces and having a pin and slot connection with said base whereby it is movable thereon, a rack bar secured at one end to the said partition while its other end portion extends through said guide, and a pawl on the end piece having the guide, cooperating with said rack bar to lock the partition in an adjusted position.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

LESTER O. CONDUITT.

Witnesses:

Gnonen G. ANDERSON, NANCY C. THOMAS.

Commissioner of Patente,

amhllnmton, n. 0.

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